I’ll also have a set of proofs from my new book collaboration with Neil Gaiman,  Instructions, to show off if you stop by.

See you there,

Charles

Drawing Down the Moon is officially out and in the stores. It’s a hefty 200 pages, mostly full color and a whole lot of fun to look at.

Almost as if you can could hold my life (at least so far) in your hands.

Here’s my first review:

BOOKLIST Magazine, Jan. 1, 2010 issue
*Starred Review*
Drawing down the Moon: The Art of Charles Vess (Dark Horse Books)

One of contemporary comics’ classiest acts, fantasy artist Vess is even more stunning as a book illustrator. It ‘s altogether fitting, then, that book (and poster) illustration looms large in this gorgeously produced retrospective album (the heavy, translucent section frontispieces are especially impressive).
Vess provides his own, very economical notes, which downplay technique in favor of autobiographical and art-appreciative remarks, the latter about his beloved influences, beginning with Arthur Rackham and Aubrey Beardsley, both of whose fluidly slender figures have their ilk in Vess creations. He also lauds the premier Victorian painter of fairies, Richard Dadd , whose mastery of crowded compositions Vess thoroughly learned; comics artists Hal Foster and Russ Manning, renowned for the ornate and graceful vigor of their work on Tarzan and Prince Valiant; and all manner of literary fantasists, starting with the Scots and English ballad makers and the Shakespeare of A Midsummer Night‘s Dream, which Vess has rendered in both comics and an illustrated edition of the full text. He doesn’t mention, but we see, the Pre-Raphaelites, Tenniel, Klimt, the Brandywine School illustrators, Maxfield Parrish indeed, the entire folkloristic, romantic tradition of opulent, musical, balletic illustrative art in his work. No wonder he’s the preferred artist of premier modern literary fantasists Neil Gaiman, Charles de Lint, and Susanna Clarke, the last of whom contributes an aptly breathless, yet not giddy, introduction.
- Ray Olson

It is available now at your local book or comic book store and on Amazon or B&N.com (at 25% off). If you would like a signed book right away you can order a copy from Malaprops (a fabulous independent bookstore) in Asheville NC. Call this 800 number to place an order: 1-800-441-9829. When I was there last Friday I signed as many of their stock as I could. Say hello from me if you do give them a call, okay?

Enjoy,

Charles

My big, fat art book: Drawing Down the Moon, The Art of Charles Vess has taken a
loooooooong while to wind its way from the completion of my initial layouts to actually
seeing print this December. And along the way there have been multiple false alarms as to its publication date.

The folks at Dark Horse and I want to apologize for any confusion that these solicitations may have caused.

So, in an effort to make certain that you know that the book will indeed be available this December we are providing you with a sneak preview of the entire 200 pages.

http://www.darkhorse.com/Features/eComics/1101/Drawing-Down-the-Moon-The-Art-of-Charles-Vess

“Within it’s pages you’ll journey through my high school and college age adventures in art and then follow me as I struggle throughout the years to put on paper what’s inside my head, up to the present day.

See what springs off of my drawing board as I move to NYC and try to geta job, any job at all, as long as it’s by drawing…

See me slide in through the back door at Marvel Comics and draw The
Warriors Three and Spider-man. Then watch as I skip across town to DC
and draw Swamp Thing, Books of Magic, Sandman and Stardust.

See me strike out on my own and self-publish an odd ball collection of
graphic narratives based on old English and Scottish ballads with a bunch of my all-time favorite writers. Then collaborate with Jeff Smith of Cartoon Books on the prequel to his splendid series Bone with our own 130-page adventure called Rose.

Along the way, see me bestowed with multiple Will Eisner, World Fantasy and Chesley awards!

Peruse the perceptive things that award-winning and international
bestselling author Susanna Clarke has to say about my art. I’ve  also commented prolifically on the art and process.

Above all, there’s the unique opportunity to view all the projects that you’d never have a chance to see except in a book like this: a 16′ bronze sculpture, event posters for local organizations, private commissions and previously unpublished paintings done just for the pure pleasure of doing them.

Here’s the link to my previous, image heavy, post on this blog about the book which includes various methods of ordering it:

http://greenmanpress.com/news/archives/415#comments

Enjoy,
Charles

This ‘other’ studio is a space dedicated to producing a new piece of art, made possible by a promise that I made when I  finished ‘Instructions’ on schedule. I gave myself the time to work on anything that I wanted. And THAT ANYTHING, happened to be a scene that I’d had in mind since the Spring, set amongst standing stones, lit by a crescent moon with the King and Queen of Faerie surrounded by a horde of cavorting fairy folk all of which is now being drawn and then painted onto a sheet of 4 x 8ft watercolor paper!

As you can see at the top of this post, the King  now wears a bracelet made of small acorns wound about his wrist. and he and his Queen are surrounded by a circle dance of their many and varied subjects.

You’ll have to forgive the odd quality of these scans as this temporary studio doesn’t have much in the way of proper lighting.

And yes, I couldn’t help myself, I placed a Totoro figure amidst the swooping figures.

This is the blurriest of the lot, but it does give you the scope of the piece. I just started applying color this week and continue to have a ball working on this.

I hope to have it ready for display come FaerieCon time. Wish me luck!!

Best,

Charles

Picture taken Monday, Aug. 31, at 5:30 pm.

“Instructions” d-o-n-e! See the FedEx label? 40 paintings in 2 months.  Home now…

Over the years I’ve made some feeble attempts to locate a copy of that map (my Dentist has long ago, closed shop and retired) but so far no luck.

Now every time I start an elaborate scene (think the Faerie Market scenes in Stardust or the Books of Magic mini) I try to capture the elusive magic that enveloped that map.

The opening spread to my new book, Instructions has a ‘map’ of the events depicted in Neil’s poem. The reader wont know it their first time through, but the landscape that they are about to travel is all there in that one image:

Edited to add: It’s around 8.30 on Sunday night and guess what? I’ve just finished the last piece of art for Instructions. 40 paintings since the first of July. I should pat myself on my back if  that is, I could actually lift my arms…

So I thought it would be fun to scan in a few more such maps. Here’s one drawn by Walt Kelly as a back cover to his absolutely delightfull comic book series, Fairy Tale Parade. This series was produced in the mid 1940’s, after he left the Disney Studios but before he started Pogo.

Then there’s this one by the very eccentric British illustrator, Sydney Sime:

And here’s one that I found on the internet. It’s a endpaper for some nameless book but delightful none the less:

Sadly that’s all I have for now. If you’ve got a good scan of any others, please feel free to send them along and I’ll add it to this post.

And now, there’s never any reason to get lost in Fairyland is there?

Best,

Charles

Because our previous picture book, Blueberry Girl did so well  (5 weeks on the NY Times bestsellers list, a summer Independent Booksellers pick, etc.) our lovely editor, Elise Howard at Harper’s asked Neil and I for another. Right away! Neil suggested  Instructions, everyone agreed and so here I am deep into a intense deadline adapting the poem in 3-4 months time, instead of the 3 years it took for BG.

Originally I had thought to make our protagonist a young androgynous boy/girl.

I worked up a cover and a title page design.

But after worrying quite a bit about that visual choice taking away from the universality of Neil’s words I finally settled on the idea (thanks Joe!) of using instead, a sort of Puss-in-Boots character that could then be either male/female as well as any nationality or race.

Everyone signed off on that choice and off to the art races I went.

One very fortunate consequence of being asked to limit my color choices was my decision to NOT try to be totally naturalistic in those choices. The pure red wolves above are an example. You’ll see LOTS more as we go along.

I also started experimenting with watercolor pencils as a medium. You draw with them exactly as you would with colored pencils but then you can play a brush dipped in water over them to dissolve that color. It’s really a lot of fun to play with!

Here’s my rough pencils for an art spread that I would first try them out on…

Then the actual finished color. It certainly adds a lot of texture that I just couldn’t get with my inks.

Note: There are four and twenty blackbirds in that tree. Go ahead, count them. And can anyone guess who that small dancing figure is in the crook of the tree limb is?

Of course there were a few false starts along the way…

The giant became a witch cooking a bit of unsavory flesh for her meal.

And here’s a particularly nasty wood, with a few cavorting beasties, all in red too…

Right now, I’m a little over half way through the art chores on the book but I’m pretty much on track to meeting my deadline.

Instructions will be out late next March so look for it then, okay?

Cheers,

Charles

Well, it’s taken a bit over 2 years from completing my initial layouts but my art book, Drawing Down the Moon, the Art of Charles Vess will finally see print this December from Dark Horse Books. The splendid introduction is by one of my favorite writers, Susanna Clarke (Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell) and then there’s plenty of commentary throughout the book on specific art pieces by myself.

It’s a big, fat 200 page hardcover retrospective of (mostly) my illustration work, all the way from high school…

into my early years in NYC…

then working for Marvel Comics…

followed by a long association with DC Comics…

then with writer Neil Gaiman, first on Sandman, then many other projects.

Our collaboration on the book Stardust led to many other illustrated book projects such as A Circle of Cats with Charles de Lint:

Then there’s all the side projects that may of you would never have a chance to see except in a book like this.

One of many posters designed for local (to me) events…

And I even managed to slip in a few just completed projects like, Blueberry Girl and after three years of heavy work the completion of a 15 x 16 ft. bronze fountain, Midsummer Play.

I’ve also include a comprehensive description and step by step visual of my painting process.

So there’s lots to enjoy.

If you want to purchase the book through you local comic book shop the solicitation for it is in the current Diamond Previews (August Issue) on page #36 (Item Code: Aug09 0029). The hefty book has a hefty price too at $39.95 but 200 pages covers a LOT of art. These orders in particular mean a LOT and will sometimes determine whether a book is actually published or not.

If there is no comic shop near by, then I hope that you will all use your local independent bookstore. Failing that there’s always Amazon.com or B&N.com who both are currently saying the book isn’t available but I’ve got a set of final proofs for the entire book in hand so I know its real. You CAN sign up for a e-mail announcement from them. That link is: http://www.amazon.com/Drawing-Down-Moon-Charles-Vess/dp/1593078137/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1248744292&sr=1-1

Order it today!

Charles